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Introduction

Since relocating to Waishuangxi on the outskirts of Taipei City in 1965, the National Palace Museum has actively expanded its collection. In addition to increasing the annual budget for new purchases, regulations were established for accepting donations that correspond with the Museum's acquisition needs, encouraging collectors to contribute valuable works of art. Thus private holdings can become part of the public domain, to be shared and appreciated by everyone.

Gallery 208 has exhibited selected artworks donated to and housed in the museum over the years, fostering further study and greater understanding of these works, and allowing people to more deeply appreciate their precious cultural heritage. The current exhibition focuses primarily on works by seven calligraphers and painters who practiced their art in Taiwan: Huang Chun-pi (1898-1991), Tai Chin-nung (1902-1990), Lin Yu-shan (1907-2004), Wang Chuang-wei (1909-1998), Fu Chuen-fu (1910-2007), Yao Meng-ku (1912-1993), and Chiang Chao-shen (1925-1996). In addition to thanking donors for their generosity, we hope that those from all walks of life will continue to support and make the National Palace Museum a place for all the people.

Selections

Waterfall from a Deep-green Cliff

Huang Chun-pi
Republican period (1911- ), 53.8x90.2 cm

Huang Chun-pi (1898-1991) was a native of China's Guangdong province. His given name was Yun-chih; he later went by the sobriquet Chun-pi. After coming to Taiwan, Huang exerted a tremendous influence on Taiwan's ink-painting circles. He was a renowned modern painter and arts educator.
Huang was well versed in the techniques of traditional Chinese painting. According to the inscription, the work depicts a waterfall on the Jiangling River. The brushwork is unrestrained yet subtly powerful, deftly capturing the scene's mutable, misty aura. The artist is thought to have painted the picture while living in Sichuan province during the Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945), where he experienced the region's natural beauty firsthand. The work was donated to the National Palace Museum by Huang Chun-pi.

Spirit Journey to the Old Country

Tai Chin-nung
Republican period (1911- ), 44.4x68.7 cm

Tai Chin-nung (1902-1990), style name Bojian, late sobriquet Jingzhe, was a native of Huoqiu in China's Anhui province. A famous humanist (modern scholar of literature and history) and calligrapher, he served as professor of Chinese literature at various domestic universities.
Executed in cursive script, the text reads: "Spirit journey to the old country, my many emotions answer mockingly, causing me to gray before my time." Stylistically, the lines are modulated and highly rhythmic, the composition unexpectedly daring. Tai's brushwork is firm and vigorous, displaying a bold, upright and distinctive calligraphic style reminiscent of Ni Yuanlu's (1594-1644) ruggedly powerful yet elegantly understated brushwork. The work was donated to the National Palace Museum by Tai Chin-nung.

Crashing Waves and Seabirds

Lin Yu-shan
Republican period (1911- ), 48.6x63 cm

Lin Yu-shan (1907-2004) was a native of Chiayi in Taiwan. His first instructors were folk artists; at age nineteen he went to Japan to receive formal art education. He was a representative Taiwanese ink and nihonga (a Japanese style) painter.
The Taiwan seascape was long a source of inspiration for the painter. This work incorporates both Eastern and Western brush, light-shade, and color techniques. The rocks' thickly layered colors form an image of cohesive power; waves rush, seabirds lightly soar, the brushwork skilled, vigorous and refined. The work was donated to the National Palace Museum by Lin Bo-ting.

Poem Commemorating a Trip Around the Island

Wang Chuang-wei
Republican period (1911- ), 132.4x67.4 cm

Wang Chuang-wei (1909-1998), given name Yuan-li, sobriquet Chuang-wei, was a native of Yi County in China's Hebei province. In 1949 he followed the Nationalist government to Taiwan, where he made indispensable contributions to the art of seal carving.
On a round-island tour, Wang viewed clouds floating and swirling about Hehuan Mountain from Dayu Ridge. He composed a commemorative poem and created this work of calligraphy the following year. Elegant and flowing, the brushwork recalls the unyielding power and forthright simplicity of calligraphic forms found on carved steles of the Northern Wei dynasty (386-534): amidst elegance, an unassuming simplicity; unconstrained power cloaked in gentle refinement. The work was donated to the National Palace museum by the Everspring Cultural Foundation.

Duigao Peak

Fu Chuan-fu
Republican period (1911- ), 182x90 cm

Fu Chuan-fu (1910-2007), a native of Hangzhou in China's Zhejiang province, excelled at both calligraphy and painting. He came to Taiwan in 1949 and had a profound and lasting influence on contemporary art circles.
Fu had a firm grasp of traditional painting techniques; nevertheless, he developed new ink-wash methods to depict Taiwan's towering mountains and billowing cloudbanks. In this work, "fissuring" texture strokes and a "blotting" method were used to portray the sheer cliffs and majestic clouds of the mountainous Alishan area. For creating a new genre with indigenous characteristics, Fu won acclaim as "Taiwan's landscape spokesperson." The work was donated to the National Palace Museum by the artist's family.

High Mountain Amid Deep Clouds

Yao Meng-ku
Republican period (1911- ), 181.3x90.5 cm

Yao Meng-ku (1912-1993) was a native of Taizhou in China's Jiangsu province. A student of Lü Feng-tzu and other noted artists, he excelled at ink-wash landscape as well as flowers-and-bird paintings. After coming to Taiwan with the Nationalist government, he established the Art Society of China. He was a renowned modern poet, calligrapher, painter, and art critic.
Here the artist depicted a mountain range as seen gazing down from an airliner while flying from Seattle to California. He employed a dyeing technique to create a landscape and atmosphere dense with haze, reminiscent of Song-dynasty painter and calligrapher Mi Fu's cloudy mountain paintings. The painting is classically refined, with a distinctive air of scholarly sophistication. The 1970 work was donated to the National Palace Museum by Ms. Chang Jung-hsiu.

Batong Pass

Chiang Chao-shen
Republican period (1911- ), 146x75 cm

Chiang Chao-shen (1925-1996), style-name Jiao-yuan, was a native of She County in China's Anhui province. A talented poet, calligrapher, and painter, he once served as deputy-director of the National Palace Museum.
The work depicts a landscape seen from an old footpath at Batong Pass in Taiwan's Nantou County. The composition is spare, incorporating a "boneless" wash technique. The foreground is colored with an ocher pigment, the background in mineral green, contrasting the mountain's cold desolation with the lush forest greenery. The simple spatial arrangement and uses of color and ink shading are exquisitely fresh and natural, washing away the mortal world's mundane aura. The work was donated to the National Palace Museum by Ms. Chang Kuei-na.